Urdu houses may be set up in 11 more cities of Maharashtra

‘Marathi language house’ and ‘Marathi language university’ are still pending despite Marathi being the State language; but 4 Urdu houses already in place, while the funds for a 5^th house approved

Mumbai – The Maharashtra Government has recently approved funds for setting up an Urdu house at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Following this, Urdu houses are likely to be set up in the cities of Mumbai, Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Parbhani, Amravati, Akola, Jalgaon, Buldhana, Dhule, Pune and Beed. While the works of ‘Marathi language house’ and ‘Marathi language university’ are pending since many years, Urdu houses have been set up in 4 cities of the State.

On 6 ^th May 2022, the State Government issued an order to set up Urdu houses in Maharashtra. As per this order, it was decided that Urdu houses can be built in cities with a population of at least 1.25 lakh. In the order, it is clearly mentioned that ‘Urdu house can be built in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar’ along with the above cities. The Government has approved and provided funds to set up an Urdu house at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Therefore, there is a possibility of establishing Urdu houses in other cities in the future. Also, if census is conducted, the number of cities eligible to build Urdu houses may increase due to population growth as compared to last census in 2011. Urdu houses have already been established in the cities of Nanded, Malegaon, Nagpur and Solapur.

Facilities available in an Urdu house

It is the Government’s order that minimum facilities such as theater, 2 auditoriums, 2 rooms for storage of materials, 2 classrooms, women’s rest room, separate parking, refreshment facilities, tree plantation, rain-water harvesting system etc. should be available in an Urdu house.

Editorial Perspective

The State Government’s policy makes one wonder if Marathi or Urdu is the State language.